Not fruit trees, but some pretty things going on in my yard right now. Thought those of you still trying to shrug winter off your shoulders might enjoy some of the pretty flowers in my yard right now:
And lastly, my variegated Brugmansia that blooms with every full moon. The fragrance is absolutely intoxicating. This is right outside my kitchen sliding glass door, and the fragrance wafts into the kitchen and family room every evening:
I love the smell of brugs at night. Looking at your pic, I can almost smell the baby powder fresh scent wafting through the house. They only bloom in fall here, or in spring if they’ve been overwintered properly. Our summer nights are too hot for them to want to fork and bloom.
I find it odd, but every nursery I’ve seen them at around here has them labeled as datura, and have their datura labeled as brugmansia/angel trumpets. Maybe they all get them from the same supplier.
Nice roses, I like the older types that have scent. My mom used to grow them. I removed them as they were neglected too long. And I wanted the space for edibles. I grow a night blooming jasmine. It has unimpressive flowers but is the strongest scented flower in the world. In the fall I have to bring it indoors. I remove all blooms because the scent would overwhelm the whole house.
During the summer our whole street smells like midnight in Jamaica. The scent travels over 100 feet.
Well I certainly appreciate looking at your lovely pictures on this chilly morning. I adore roses!! You have some lovely ones. I have yet to grow any David Austins, but I have grown a number of old garden roses over the years. I have some climbers on order from Burlington Roses that I cant wait to get. All are supposed to be fragrant.
Your Brugmansia is gorgeous!! I always wanted one, but it would have to be grown in a pot and brought in my gh for the winter… Someday!!
Thank you, everyone, just some cheerful pretty photos to say spring will be on its way for those still having an extended winter! Muddy, Datura is a different plant that Brugmansia. They both have trumpet-shaped flowers that hang downward (hence the common names of Angel’s Trumpet, Devil’s Trumpet, Moon Flower (not the same as Morning Glory), Thornapple, Jimson Weed, Locoweed. They are both in the Solanaceae family, but are in separate Genera. They are both very poisonous, so you have to take care in where you plant them and how you handle them. Even prolonged exposure to the fragrance can illicit poisoning symptoms in some people. Brugmansia species are semi-woody perennials, forming bush or small tree shapes. In the wild some species are 30 or more feet high. Datura species are either herbaceous annuals or short lived tender perennials. Both have similar long oval leaves, sometimes toothed, that can get quite large. Datura leaves are often fuzzy or hairy. The stems of Datura often have a touch of reddish purple. Brugmansia foliage tends to be a darker green than Datura foliage and there are Brugmansias with variegated foliage (like mine).
Drew, we have Night Blooming Jasmine in our yard in several places, too. My husband absolutely loves the fragrance, so we have a large climbing specimen growing right outside his office window. I grew up as a kid with a big bed of it growing under my bedroom window. In the summer, I loved going to sleep smelling the jasmine, fond memories!
Ginny, I love my David Austins for their incredible scent and old rose form. Plus, I pick ones that are disease resistant as well. I have quite of few of Tom Carruth’s hybrids from Weeks roses for the same reasons.
The first time I ever heard of Datura was in the Don Juan books. They consumed the plant to hallucinate in their religious ceremonies. It might be a different species? I think they smoked it? I don’t remember?
Nope, that’s Datura. It is used as a hallucinogenic as well (in smaller amounts). It actually has 3 active poisons in it. Very nasty stuff, but they are so pretty to look at, and they’re in a spot where no one touches them (except to prune, and that’s with gloves).
I have been planting a number of annuals to attract beneficial insects. This year I have Tutti Fruitii lupines, delphiniums, Senora and peppermint stick Zinnia, wild berry and Magnus Superior Echinacea, well these are perennial. Also Rainbow mix chrysanthemums, Fun & Sun and Mammoth Russian Sunflowers, viola’s and poppies. Their is a trade group that trades seeds of just about anything. I was thinking of participating this year. A member at tomatoville send me about 25 annuals a few weeks ago. I still need to go through them. She mentioned the group. Seems you can get most annuals free from other gardeners all over. I asked this person for some marigolds, and she sent three kinds and about 20 other flowers, unreal how nice people are! Thanks Ella!
I’m growing a ton of herbs this year too. I want to try some different basils. many were sent free to me, thanks again to Ella. Genovese of course, San Remo, Summerlong, Holy, Dark Opal Purple, Cinamon, Greek Columnar, and Afican blue basil. Sage, Cumin, garlic chives, Greek and variegated Cuban Oregano. It’s going to be an interesting year! Many have very nice flowers and attract beneficials too. Some of the basils are hybrids, and will not die if they flower.
Patty, I’m familiar w/brugs and datura, am aware of their tropane alkaloids and toxicity, and know their phylogeny. That’s why it drives me a bit batty that the local nurseries invariably have them mislabeled. I used to have many named cultivars of brugs and grew others from seed. If left outdoors over winter here, they die back, but return in the spring. I don’t think there is anything easier to propagate, unless someone does what I did this year and stick their bucket of branched cuttings outside during warmth in January and forget to bring it in when a freeze comes through. oops
Beautiful pics, especially the roses. So many people are going to the “Knock-out” roses these days. I’ll probably get hate mail for saying it, but to me they aren’t even real roses! ha. I don’t mean biologically, and I know that a knockout “bush” completely covered in blooms can be very pretty…but there is nothing like big, beautiful single stem roses (tea or other) like the ones in your photo. Thanks for sharing.
Patty,
Thank you for the beautiful pictures. I used to have 20+ roses. then, I discovered fruit trees! So, those that needed a lot of care were gone. I am down to 5. Love Song and Poseidon are on my list for next year. The picture of your Love Song has confirmed it.
My Julia Child gets black spot every year but it is a keeper because it is such a prolific bloomer. So is Abraham Darby (plus wonderful frafrance).
Great photos Hoosier. Drew…I might have to purchase one of those Jasmine plants, one time I was in Wal-Mart a few years ago and they had one that at least looked just like your’s.
Doesn’t anybody grow common purple lilac anymore? I always thought (and still do) that nothing smells more wonderful than a blooming lilac. Just like roses, the new highly colored super flowering versions have almost no smell at all.
I had Datura at my other place and it was beautiful and smelled great, but at times the odor was so strong as to become sickening.
Appleseed, we have a hedge of the common purple lilac growing by our home . They are pretty common around our parts, and you will often see them growing back off the side of the country roads. They smell so pretty and every spring I pick vases of them. I have fond memories of the beautiful hedge of lilacs at grandma and grandpa’s house and at my childhood home growing up. In fact last year dad put the old house up for sale and I made sure to go dig up a runner with lots of root. Common lilacs are real hardy and I am thrilled it survived our brutally cold winter. I planted some old french lilacs fifteen years ago at our old farmhouse. The names slip my mind currently, but one was pale pink, blue/purple and another a deep red/mauve color and they smelled divine.
I cant wait till they start blooming along with the plum trees.
Funny you mention memories of your grandparents because that’s exactly who I think of everytime I smell it…my grandma and grandpap. Just like your grandparents they had a big beautiful bush in their yard and now the homeplace is gone and so are they. I sure miss them.
Lilacs aren’t cheap anymore either for some reason…I looked around a bit and they are as pricy as fruit trees. So easy to propagate and so hardy I thought they would be cheap as forsythia or other similar things.
